


The Wailing Root

by IronicWeeb



Category: Remnant: From The Ashes, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Confused Midoriya Izuku, F/F, F/M, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Only Women Have Quirks | Men are Quirkless, Scary Midoriya Izuku, Toogata Mirio Has One for All Quirk, Toogata Mirio Has a Quirk, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26426002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IronicWeeb/pseuds/IronicWeeb
Summary: A thousand years ago, Earth was invaded by The Root, an alien race with plant-like bodies. Modern weapons were unable to keep up with the onslaught of enemies, The Root modified their weapons to suit their needs, creating their own versions and completely pummeled the human race. In only 10 years 7 billion humans was reduced to only 12,000. All of a sudden, the Root invasion abruptly stopped. The human's hero, Braylon Atonal, was killed, and found on a throne of Root. The Tree was gone, the last traces of the Root was beginning to wither away. It was as though they had given up. And so, Human civilization began to prosper, due to the frequent exposure of Root the next generation of children adopted Quirks. Soon, the human race had jumped back to their original 7 billion in time. But soon they'd meet an old foe, but will he be foe? or friend?
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Hadou Nejire/Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko/Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Midoriya Izuku & Eri, Midoriya Izuku & Toogata Mirio, Midoriya Izuku & U.A. Faculty, Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Midoriya Izuku/Everyone, Midoriya Izuku/Toga Himiko
Comments: 5
Kudos: 61





	1. Chapter 1

_“_ **_This is boring_ ** _”_

_A large tree-like entity, with crimson red leaves and roots the size of trucks, stood over the fallen city. It loomed over the wreckage, it’s all-seeing gaze looking down in boredom. “_ **_It’s the same thing over and over again. A human comes to fight and manages to get through my army, but then falls within the first 5 minutes of our battle. Where's the suspense? The challenge? The fun?_ ** _” The tree was known as Root King, as the name implies he leads the race known as The Root, a race that conquers and survives through turning the enemy’s power into their own. They are a plague, the cicada of the world. They eat all that is in front of them, rule all that is within their reach. That was until a foolish warrior of a tribe decided to drop a nuke and weaken both the Root and their own tribe._

_The Root King scoffed at the thought of the warrior, The Undying King. A merciful and benevolent fool he was. Though he respected his tenacity and spirit. With a loud bang, yet another human had gotten through, wielding powerful weaponry and shielded by strong armor. The weapon in specific irked the Root King’s interest. ‘_ **_The Beam Rifle and the Sporebloom eh? Two very good weapons. This might be the one’_ ** _He thought._

_The Beam Rifle is the result of mixing arcane forces with modern technology, for a rapid-fire weapon it has a surprising range ranging at 50 meters. Not only can this carve enemies with its powerful beam, but it also leaves nasty radiation burns which gets worse as time progresses. The Sporebloom. Made out of the very Root the King had birthed, it’s basically a very powerful shotgun. It fires explosive bullets, with an after effect of several clouds of noxious gas._

_Looking at the human’s equipment brought a smile to the old King’s face, “_ **_I see you’ve worked hard to face me, rodent._ ** _” He said, his voice booming throughout the room. The human flinched before shifting his respirator aside, “You’ve noticed, you overgrown plant” he quipped back. Surprised would be an overstatement, more like a pleasant shock. A laugh rumbled about the room_ **_“I see you’ve grown arrogant.”_ ** _The King said, the trunk cracking open to reveal a boy around the age of fifteen, his body was covered in armor made from Root. His hair was jet black with streaks of red and his eyes seemed to shift from blood red to black._ **_“Let’s test if that confidence can hold up!”_ **

* * *

_The Root King stood over the dead corpse of his enemy. He was panting hard, radiation burns scorching all over his body. He had some root act like bandages, using the healing effects of the juices to help with his injuries. For the first time in the 1,000 years he’d been alive for, he finally experienced a challenge. A real fight. It had ended with him as the victor, but the feeling of emptiness had yet to hit him. All that he felt was satisfaction, joy, and...compassion. Emotions he hadn’t experienced in a hot minute or...er….a hot millennium. He looked up at the sky, the blue had turned into a crimson red from the spores they had emit over the years. The clouds had blackened up, almost like they had become ash._

_The Root King looked back at his fallen foe, before giving it the first sincere smile he had given in a long time. He had Roots rise from the ground, before enwrapping the corpse in a throne-like chair made of Root. The Root King sighed and limped back to the tree, the throne the following suit. He entered the tree, the trunk closing around him and he saw the world again. The eyes of his children, spanning from just outside the door to halfway across the world. “_ **_Maybe this won’t bring me joy,_ ** _” he said to himself._ **_“Maybe I’ve been doing this for too long, blinded by a tunnel vision that confuses even me,”_ ** _The Root king said to himself. He pondered that thought a little while longer before an idea struck. “_ **_Hibernation._ ** _” He said before a smile began forming as the plan began shaping within the confinement of his hive mind._

_He connected his brain to all of his children, some had died due to the surprise feeling, but that mattered not. He could always birth some later._ **_“RETURN TO YOUR FATHER.”_ ** _In no time, his kin had all dived underneath the ground in perfect unison and they all began their journey back. The roots that once squeezed cities had started to splinter back, the miniature trees he’d planted began to fold inwards within themselves, all to get back to their father._

* * *

_2 weeks had passed and the last of the Roots had returned, all lined up in rows in front of their father. With a simple swipe of his hand, all of his kin began to wither and assimilate within his very feet. He felt a bit forlorn, and a little guilty. After all the work he’d gone through to conquer earth, he had abandoned it on a whim. Well, sooner or later the world will be infested with rodents. After the last of Kin had returned back to where it had come from, the Root King began to shrink, the trunk burrowing underneath the flesh of the earth and soon, a new tree had appeared in Mount Fuji, a normal cherry tree with slight red patches._

_The Root King chuckled to himself like a child, “_ **_I wonder what the world will look like after another thousand years,”_ ** _he whispered to himself, “_ **_Thank god I missed enough humans to avoid incest…_ ** _”_

_The Root King, conqueror of planets, ruler of Earth, Pioneer of Technology, had begun his slumber underneath the grounds of a great mountain._


	2. Sowing Empty Seeds

“So this is the place you talking about Professor Kishimoto?” Asked a man in his 20s, dressed in green military fatigues and was brandishing an automatic weapon. “Yes, there was a large spike in seismic activity in this area. The spike was so large that the imminent threat of Mount Fuji erupting was a possibility.” The scholar stated, pushing his glasses up and looking out the window of the jeep. Meanwhile, the man and his fellow soldiers were sweating bullets.  _ ‘Mount Fuji erupting!?’ _

The jeep came to a halt at the foot of the mountain, with 4 other vehicles screeching to a stop. The soldiers inside all filed out and began setting up a temporary base, putting up tents and surrounding the entrance with tape and fences. While that happened, a massive earthquake shook the ground, causing most of the equipment and people to fall off their feet and land on their asses. “Holy fucking shit!” a soldier swore as he dodged a piece of heavy machinery that had toppled onto the ground. It ended quicker than it had started, everyone panting and afraid, especially the man who nearly got crushed with 200 pounds of machinery. 

“Professor! What the fuck was that!” One of the squad leaders, a big burly man with big muscles but a brain the size of a nut came into view, visibly angry. The professor picked himself up off the ground, an annoyed look on his face as he readjusted his glasses. “That was the seismic activity we were talking about.” He said, before glaring at the squad leader, “Do you know what seismic activity is, brainless?” he quipped. A vein clearly bulged on the large man’s forehead, “Shut up you stupid white coat, just do your job.” He growled. The two tsked at each other and walked off, the professor went over to his station while the squad leader wandered off to order his men.

The day had passed without incident, no squabbles nor qualms were caused, and no other earthquakes had happened. Certain squads had been given the role of the night watch and would cycle on which squad gets to stay up and watch for anything suspicious. Tonight was Squad 3’s turn, the squad led by the big man earlier from this morning. The squad of 12 had been split up into two groups of six, one would first search the premises for any changes, while the other one would be guarding the camp. 6 men, including the leader, went out to search the premises. 

Meanwhile, while this was happening, the Root King had already awoken but hadn’t gotten out of the ground yet. He didn’t need the military on his trail already, considering that he’d lost his army. He needed soldiers of his own, and these ones would be perfect. After that, he’d only infect people when it was absolutely necessary...at least, that’s what he told himself.  _ ‘First, I’ll send out some Hollow Seedlings’  _ he thought,  _ ‘But it’ll be difficult, considering that I haven’t done this in a thousand years’  _ While he hadn’t lost much of his power, it was enough that he probably wouldn’t be able to conquer the entire world, most likely only a quarter if this plan of his would succeed. And he wasn’t planning on doing that anyway, the world was a lot more fun when there’s prey. 

He tried real hard to remember, and after a minute or two, he was able to create 19 Hollow Seedlings. These were the bottom of the barrel, small round creatures that acted as seeds for his army. They were short, with no upper body to speak of. Basically they were balls made of Root given arms and legs. They were weak, as in super weak, but they had some resemblance of intelligence. If a large number were given weapons like in the past where he had given them scythes and short swords, they would be quite the threat. But for now, they’d been given weapons made of Root. Basic swords that were as sharp as well….a sword, and a pistol-like device that fires sharpened pieces of wooden shrapnel. 

  
“ **Go forth, younglings. Spark the flames of my new army** ” He told them, they all hollered and screeched before taking off into a sprint. Back then, humans used Luminite Crystals and pieces of himself to make strange devices they called Weapon Mods. They granted the user abilities that the King hadn’t realized he could do himself, the first one he had acquired was an ability that let him see heat signatures. While the weapon mod only worked for a certain distance, the Root King’s “Hunter’s Mark” lets him see as far as he’d like. He saw the heat signature of his seedlings race towards the group of men, splitting up to surround them. And in a matter of seconds, he heard the loud screams of men and the hollering and hooting of the seedlings. He saw it all unfold. 

The Seedlings had surrounded them and started their attack by firing a barrage of wooden projectiles, hitting most of them during the sudden ambush. The men got onto the ground to hide from the projectiles but were then leaped onto by the Seedlings and were murdered gruesomely. Like clockwork, the Seedlings open their mouths and small little Root spores fell out and landed onto the corpses. Within the next 10 minutes, those bodies will start becoming cocoons for his Kin. Creatures stronger and more powerful than mere Seedlings. He was honestly surprised it worked, the only reason why the Seedlings didn’t get destroyed was that they got the drop on the soldiers. 

_ ‘Well, a win is a win. Time to drag the bodies back here and make a temporary nest.’  _

“Professor! Professor Kishimoto!”

A soldier had ran up to him, his face deathly pale and was panting, the amount of sweat on his face was unnatural and there was a look of sheer panic on his face. “What is it?” The professor asked, turning from his work, a feeling of concern rising in his chest. “Squad 3’s patrol team is completely unresponsive! They aren’t answering us back sir, and we can’t find any sign of them anywhere!” Professor Kishimoto started to pale as well, he kept his composure and walked out of his tent. “We won’t be able to find them without proper light, increase security, and have two squads take turns at night patrol. Keep everyone within the camp’s premises until sunrise, then we’ll start our search.”

Kishimoto looked out into the pink forest, sweating.  _ ‘First the earthquake and now this? What the hell is going on... _


	3. Wins and Losses

“Has there been any more signs of them?”

The professor stood over a table, rifling through papers and pictures. A soldier stood in attention in front of the research tent’s entrance, “No sir, all we’ve found were their guns and their blood.” He reported, bringing a sigh from the whitecoat. “Well, keep looking. We can’t kill them off just yet.” He said, exhausted. He waved the soldier off, who relaxed his position and promptly walked out of the tent. One of the other researchers, a girl with blond hair tied in a ponytail and big round glasses, looked over, her face shadowed with concern. “Professor, is something wrong?” She asked, receiving a tired smile as a response. “Yes, Melissa. I'm alright.” He said, sounding quite the opposite.  _ ‘Actually, I’d like to go home and take a nap with my cat’  _ He thought glumly. 

A week had passed and the cocoons of Root burst open, a bright red light seeping from the massive hole as a foot in the form of a wooden tendril stepped out. A Devil, a basic soldier equipped with a hatchet and shortsword, both made of Root.  _ ‘Good, they’ve matured really well.’  _ the Root King thought, before directing his attention towards an abnormally large cocoon. One about twice the size of the other ones.  _ ‘And luck seems to be on my side, it seems this little one will come out to be one of my special kin.’  _ he felt oddly excited, he felt the same thing he was feeling when fighting against that man. “ **I can’t wait much longer.** ” He said impatiently, a root rose from the ground and wrapped itself around one of the beating vines of the cocoon, a vine which acted as circulation for the spore to travel about the wooden sack. The single root began to shiver and glow with a red light, the sounds of wisping ash traveling up and into the cocoon. The vine began beating faster and harder, the cocoon shook and withering. Soon out came a large creature, its chest pulsating with power. It was rough twice the size of the other Devils and was more powerful, it had a red glaze around its body, as though it were an extra layer of skin. “ **Excellent, I shall provide you with weapons to suit your stature** ” the Root King announced, the small root he had used began to return into the ground and the chest of the tree opened to two large blades, both the size of two grown men. With the scythes came a metal helmet similar to that of a Crusader, as well as a velvet robe adorned with the Root’s sigil. 

The large Root bowed, before grasping the helmet shakily, as though hesitant to accept such an honor, and slid it onto its head. The helmet was made of Root place through heavy pressure and heat, similar to how diamonds are made, but the result was different. It created a kind of Root as strong, if not stronger, than steel. The robe was created from the King’s very own plant fiber, which was able to deflect most attacks. The blades were capable to cut through the stone of the very mountain the King resided in and as more than strong enough to block attacks. 

“ **Good, now, go forth and slaughter the humans. I require more corpses to create more of my kin.** ” He ordered, The Knight nodded, before bursting into ash and flame and disappearing, warping towards the humans. Not long after, he heard the screams of the camp and the loud banging of the human’s puny weaponry.

The camp was in chaos. First the earthquake, then the disappearance of a whole squad, and now some sort of creature with two large blades had appeared. “Open fire!” A squad leader yelled in panic, and the members of his squad rose their weapons and let loose a barrage of bullets, only for it to prove futile as the creature skillfully moved the blades to block the incoming projectiles. It looked up from the ground, a red glint in its eyes glowed brighter as it let loose a scream similar to that of a thousand damned souls, it charged forward, a blade on the right had come down and gone through 5 fully armed men like butter, a blade on the left had done the same thing to 4 others. “Oh...Oh my god!” 

The soldiers screamed in fear, backing up with their weapons pointed towards the enemy, all firing, again, it raised its weapon to skillfully block the projectiles and it turned its attention to another group of military men. “I-Its coming this way!” A soldier yelled over the gunfire, his eyes manic with fear as he unloaded an entire clip to no avail. Suddenly, a blond ponytail stepped in front of them, letting loose a shockwave that pushed the creature a good distance back. The weapons in its hand flew into the shrubbery as it landed on the ground weakly, seemingly shaking. “Now’s our chance! Get it!”

They all opened fire on the creature, some bullets hitting the helmet and robe which bounced off harmlessly while others hit the target, instead of blood or wooden scraps it was ash. It bled ash. After what it seemed like a whole hour of firing and reloading frantically, the thing stopped moving. The soldiers walked in to get closer, coughing at the red and black ash it emitted from its wounds. “Is...Is it dead?” A soldier said, his gun pointed at the creature, his hands shaking like a tree in a storm. “I don’t know,” The leader for squad 2 said, “But let's make sure it is.” He raised his pistol towards an exposed area near the heart of the creature when he suddenly heard the same scream...but multiplied a few dozen times. 

The Root King had seen its performance. It was mediocre at best, but it was to be expected. It had just been born after all, and this would be a good lesson to all his troops. Never look down on your enemies. Sure, the King was cocky and acted arrogantly, but he knew their capabilities. Not just anyone can fight him, they’d have to get through the other races who were fighting for his position as well, so the fact that plenty of humans had gotten to him didn’t fly over his ego.  _ ‘That, and I gave them a 1000 more years to rebuild and possibly advance in their science.’  _ The Root King sighed and told the creature to return.  _ ‘I should probably start giving them names instead of just calling them bigger Devils.’  _ He thought,  _ ‘I know the humans already gave them names,’  _ just as that thought crossed his mind, a torrent of ash and smoke swirled and twisted, and soon the shape of his robed warrior came into view. It was sad, seemingly crying despite its distinct lack of eyes. “ **It is alright, little one. All is fine as long as you learned something from this.** ” He said, before thinking back to what happened. From what Hunter’s Mark told him, It was doing fine, killing the men before a woman cropped up out of nowhere and suddenly It flew back and Its weapons were launched into the shrubbery.  _ ‘Was it some sort of weapon mod? No, she didn’t have a weapon. Maybe they figured out a way to use mods on everyday items, them possibly a bracelet?’  _ It seems that the Root King has something to look into at another date, right now he just needed bodies to fuel his current need of a small army. 

He turned his attention away from the still crying creature and looked towards the battle. It seemed decided, the men were easily wiped out due to the prior panic causing their formation to break, which then led to them being overwhelmed by Hollow Seedlings and Devils. He saw two heat signatures getting further away, it seemed as though the woman had escaped along with another person. The Root King didn’t mind, he’s already gotten enough bodies to make 20 more Devils, what's it matter that he missed two? “ **Excellent, bring back the bodies to me. Try not to scratch them up on the way** ” He commanded, receiving nods from his troops...er...well...attempts at a nod from the Hollow Seedlings. They didn’t have necks. At all. 

In no time at all, the bodies were wrapped into cocoons and this time it yielded four special Roots. One cocoon seemed to be fused to another one, which was both concerning and made the King quite curious, so he left it and waited for the results. One was big and bulky, quite different from his first Special Root. One was of normal size, but the usual red glow was at the point that it was blinding. And the last cocoon was covered in an almost flesh-like material, with the exposed Root being covered in thorns. All in all, this made the King quite excited to see how his new kin would look. While he made plans for the next week he would wait for them to hatch, he decided to name the larger Devil, the one with the two swords, a Hunter. He’s had many Hunters in the past, but this is a first for the King to have new variants. Most of the time he wouldn’t even be able to see them, they’d just come from random bodies that turned into self-contained cocoons, with the only thing connecting them to the Root was their race and their desire to conquer the Earth. The King looked around, getting a bizarre sense of deja vu.  _ ‘This reminds me of how I first started, in an abandoned subway. Strange how I moved on to being in space.’  _ He thought. He was excited about what the next week would contain.

The only survivors of the attack were Professor Mikoto Suzuki and Assistant Melissa Shield. They were suddenly overrun by mysterious creatures of unknown origin in a forest area of Mount Fuji. They had an almost human-like body structure and were made of a wood substance. They bled Ash. No one would believe them, how could anyone? The top brass only believed the part of the Wood Creatures, but blew it off as just a villain using a Quirk. They sent over a squad of Pro Heroes to deal with it. They didn’t understand. They refused to listen. Professor Mikoto sat in his dim office at the University, gripping the paper in his hand in frustration,  _ ‘Goddamnit...Goddamnit!’  _ He slammed his clenched fist against the metal work desk, “Don’t they realize that men just died!”

Then he paused, he thought about what he said, and it brought a chuckle to him. “Heh... _ Men  _ died. Expendables.” he whispered. Before scoffing and reluctantly returning to his work. The last he’d heard of Melissa was that she’d return to I-Island almost immediately. He couldn’t blame her, he was there with her when it all happened. 

“That's all we are to them.” He thought out loud sourly, “Tools to be used and tossed aside after we’ve broken. They refuse to even acknowledge that men with lives died.” The Professors hand paused...before letting out a roar of anger and throwing the pen in his hand at the wall.


End file.
